Nobu: New York

Nation's Restaurant News, May 23, 2005 by Erica Duecy

There's nothing typical about Nobu, a New York hot spot and celebrity haunt where--11 years after the restaurant opened--diners still may have a better chance of winning Mega Millions than of scoring a prime-time reservation.

Nobu is a fine-dining restaurant without white tablecloths, tuxedoed waiters or a formal progression of courses. It replaces those trappings of the fine-dining experience with pulsing energy and an adventurous spirit, incorporating "olive oil, garlic and other ingredients that no traditional Japanese chefs would dream of using," according to The New York Times' most recent review of the restaurant, written by Ruth Reichl in 1995. Reichl, who gave Nobu a three-star rating, called it "a remarkable restaurant that epitomizes the energy of the city.... Sushi lovers will find that no kitchen in the city turns out a more spectacular plate of raw fish."

While Reichl's review was written 10 years ago, the restaurant's recent accolades and $10 million annual sales attest to its continuing strength as one of New York's top dining destinations. Nobu tied for the city's Top Japanese Cuisine accolade in the 2005 New York Zagat Survey and perennially is on that publication's Top 10 Most Popular Restaurants list.

Nobu New York also is the flagship of a growing chain with units in London; Tokyo; Las Vegas; Milan, Italy; Malibu, Calif.; and Miami Beach, Fla. Additional Nobu openings slated for later this year include second units in New York and London and first units in the Bahamas and Dallas. The restaurant was named an NRN Hot Concepts! winner in 2000.

According to Drew Nieporent, partner in Nobu New York and Nobu London, the secret to the restaurant's success is that "it's a great collaboration. What happens sometimes is that the personality of the restaurant rises above the individuals who work there," says Nieporent, who also is the president of Myriad Restaurant Group, which counts Montrachet and Tribeca Grill in New York and Rubicon in San Francisco among its acclaimed restaurants.

Also, Nieporent says: "Nobu hit at the right time."

Japanese restaurants in the early 1990s were marketed to Japanese customers in their design and the style of service, Nieporent notes. "What I wanted to do was to present the experience in a more user-friendly manner and to knock out all the cliches: no tatami rooms, no Japanese screens and a more stylish ambience," he says.

In 1990 Nieporent teamed up with Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro to open Tribeca Grill in New York. De Niro had become friends with chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa during his years spent dining at Matsuhisa's namesake restaurant in Los Angeles--which was inducted into NRN's Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 1993. He recommended Matsuhisa as chef for the new restaurant. Matsuhisa eventually declined over a concern that the space was too large, but he expressed interest in collaborating on a future project.

"I could see that [Matsuhisa] and De Niro had a great friendship," Nieporent says. "But Tribeca Grill was too big of a space for Nobu, so I kept looking." In 1994 Nieporent acquired another, smaller space in Manhattan's TriBeCa district, which opened as Nobu later that year.

The cuisine at Nobu is contemporary Japanese, influenced by Matsuhisa's classical training at sushi bars in Tokyo as well as stints working in Peru and Argentina. Those experiences inspired him to introduce such flavors as aji amarillo, cilantro and chiles to his cuisine, resulting in such preparations as red snapper sashimi with sea salt, yuzu juice and Peruvian chile paste.

Many of Nobu New York's signature dishes, such as its miso-marinated, broiled black cod, have remained on the menu since the restaurant opened. However, Nobu's omakase, a chef's tasting menu, "keeps changing with the seasons and is ever evolving with new ingredients and techniques," Matsuhisa says. Another recent innovation is a test of grilled items at Nobu's New York and London restaurants, where Matsuhisa has installed hibachi tables.

According to David Rockwell, principal of the New York-based Rockwell Group, the firm that designed Nobu New York, the restaurant's staying power is based on a spirit of collaboration between design, service and operations. "We tried to create a fresh, new experience that showcased Nobu's food," Rockwell says. "The design is the visual equivalent of Nobu's very sophisticated yet informal approach to food."

As such, the design of the original Nobu reflects the fact that Matsuhisa hails from the country, Rockwell says. "The design reflects an abstraction of nature--the black river-rock wall, the abstract forest and glowing onyx wall over the sushi bar," he says.

Somewhat unusual for a high-profile New York restaurant is the absence of a drinking bar at Nobu or its more casual neighbor, Next Door Nobu, an adjacent restaurant that serves a similar menu at comparable prices but does not take reservations.

Not having a bar at either restaurant was a deliberate choice because the spaces are somewhat small, Nieporent notes. "We don't have a bar, so we have to be efficient with reservations," he says. "Management has to be stellar."